Finno-Ugric languages

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The Finno-Ugric languages form a subfamily of the Uralic languages. The majority of linguists believe that Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian, among other languages should be included in the group. Unlike most of the other languages spoken in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the Indo-European family of languages. The Uralic languages also include the Samoyedic languages, and some linguists use the terms Finno-Ugric and Uralic as synonyms. Many of the smaller Finno-Ugric languages are endangered and near extinction.

The "Urheimat" of the proto-language of the modern Finno-Ugric languages, known as Proto-Finno-Ugric, is believed to have been to the west of the Ural mountains, some 5000 years ago. There is evidence that before the arrival of the Slavic tribes to their present territory in Russia, a sprinkling of Finno-Ugrians inhabited the whole territory from the Urals to the Baltic Sea.

There have been attempts to relate the Finno-Ugric languages to the Indo-European languages, but there are not enough similarities to link them with any certainty. Conversely, there have been suggestions that the Germanic languages evolved from an Indo-European language such as Celtic imposed on a Finnic substrate, but no satisfactory proof yet exists. (On the other hand, it is now believed that Germanic was initially much more akin to Balto-Slavic and moved closer to Celtic during its protohistoric development.)

A portion of the Baltic-Finnic lexicon is not shared with the remaining Finno-Ugric languages and may be due to a pre-Finnic substrate, which may coincide in part with the substrate of the Indo-European Baltic languages. As far as the Samic (Lappic) languages are concerned, a hypothesis has been advanced that the Sami were originally speakers of a different language, who adopted their current Finno-Ugric speech under the pressure of their Finnic neighbors.

There have also been theories about the Finno-Ugric languages being related to other language families, such as the Yukaghir languages and the Altaic languages (which includes the Turkic languages).

Structural features

All of the Finno-Ugric languages share structural features and basic vocabulary. Around 200 basic words have been proposed and include word stems for concepts related to humans such as names for relatives and body parts. The structural features are seen by linguists as strong evidence for a common ancestry. These include inflection by adding suffixes (instead of prepositions in English). The Finno-Ugric languages are also famous for having a large number of grammatical cases, of which Finnish has at least 15 and Hungarian has at least 24.

Another feature of the Finno-Ugric languages is that verbs are inflected, i.e. conjugated, by person and number. (This is the familiar way verbs are conjugated in most Indo-European languages; but Chinese, Vietnamese and other isolating languages do not share this feature.)

Finally, the Finno-Ugric languages lack possessive pronouns, such as my and your, communicating the same information via declension. In some languages, the genitive of the personal pronoun is used to express possession. Examples: Estonian mu koer, Northern Sami mu beana, meaning 'my dog'. In others, a pronominal suffix is used, optionally together with the genitive case of a pronoun: thus Finnish (minun) koirani, "my dog" (literally 'I-gen. dog-my'), from koira "dog". Similarly, Hungarian, lacking determinative possessive pronouns, uses possessive noun suffixes, optionally together with pronouns; cf. 'the dog' = a kutya vs. 'my dog' = az én kutyám (literally, 'the I dog-my') or simply a kutyám (literally, 'the dog-my'). Hungarian, however, does have independent possessive pronouns; e.g. enyém 'mine', tiéd 'yours', etc. These are declined; e.g. nom. enyém, acc. enyémet, dat. enyémnek, gen. enyémé, etc.

Classification

It is generally agreed that the Finno-Ugric subfamily of the Uralic languages has the following members:

Ugric (Ugrian)

• Hungarian
  • Hungarian
• Ob Ugric (Ob Ugrian)
  • Khanty (Ostyak)
  • Mansi (Vogul)

Finno-Permic (Permian-Finnic)

• Permic (Permian)
  • Komi (Komi-Zyrian, Zyrian)
  • Komi-Permyak
  • Udmurt (Votyak)
• Finno-Cheremisic (Finno-Volgaic, Volga-Finnic)
  • Cheremisic
    • Mari (Cheremis)
      • Meadow Mari (Low Mari, Eastern Mari)
      • Hill Mari (High Mari, Western Mari)
  • Finno-Mordvinic
    • Mordvinic (Mordvin, Mordovian)
      • Erzya
      • Moksha
    • Finno-Lappic (Finno-Saamic, Finno-Samic)
      • Sami (Samic, Saamic, Lappic, Lappish)
        • Western Sami (Western Samic)
          • Southern Sami (Southern Samic)
            • Lule Sami
            • Pite Sami - Nearly extinct
            • Southern Sami
            • Ume Sami - Nearly extinct
          • Northern Sami (Northern Samic)
            • Northern Sami
        • Central-Eastern Sami (Central-Eastern Samic)
          • Central Sami (Central Samic)
            • Akkala Sami - Nearly extinct
            • Kainuu Sami - Extinct
            • Kemi Sami - Extinct
            • Kildin Sami
            • Skolt Sami
            • Ter Sami - Nearly extinct
          • Eastern Sami (Eastern Samic)
            • Inari Sami
      • Baltic-Finnic (Balto-Finnic, Finnic, Fennic)
        • Estonian
        • Finnish
          • Finnish proper
          • Meänkieli (Tornedalen Finnish)
          • Kven Finnish (in Norway)
          • Ingrian Finnish
        • Izhorian (Ingrian) - Nearly extinct
        • Karelian
          • Karelian proper
          • Lude (Ludic, Ludian)
          • Olonets Karelian (Livvi, Aunus, Aunus Karelian, Olonetsian)
        • Livonian (Liv) - Nearly extinct
        • Veps (Vepsian)
        • Votic (Votian, Vod) - Nearly extinct

The term Volgaic, used to denote a branch previously believed to include Mari and Mordvinic, has now become obsolete, since modern linguistic research has shown that it was a geographic classification rather than a linguistic one, because the Mordvinic languages are more closely related to the Finno-Lappic languages than they are to the Mari languages.

Linguists criticizing the Finno-Ugric group believe that Ugric and Finno-Permic are more distantly related than proponents advertise, and possibly no closer than the Turkic and Ugric groups (see Ural-Altaic hypothesis).

Common vocabulary

This is a small sample of cognates in basic vocabulary across Uralic, illustrating the sound laws (based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica.) Note that in general two cognates don't have the same meaning; they merely have the same origin. Thus, the English word in each row should be regarded as an approximation of the original meaning, not a translation of the other words.

Numbers

The numbers from 1 to 10 in Finnish, Estonian, North Sami, Erzya, Mansi, and Hungarian.

Finno-Ugric Swadesh lists

100-word Swadesh lists for certain Finno-Ugric languages can be compared and contrasted at the Rosetta Project website: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Erzya.

See also

• Uralic languages

External links

• Mainstream views on the Finno-Ugrian language group
• Finno-Ugric FAQ
• Ural-Altaic-Sumerian Etymological Dictionary
• "The Ugric-Turkic Battle": A Critical Review (PDF) by Angela Marcantonio (Rome), Pirjo Nummenaho (Naples) and Michela Salvagni (Rome)
• Linguistic Shadow-Boxing by Johanna Laakso - A book review of Angela Marcantonio's "The Uralic language family. Facts, myths and statistics"

References

• Benkő, Loránd: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen (Etymological Dictionary of Hungarian). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1992-1997.
• Collinder, Bjorn: Fenno-Ugric Vocabulary. Uppsala, 1955.
• Csepregi Márta (ed.): Finnugor kalauz (Finno-Ugric Guide). Budapest: Panoráma, 1998.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th ed.: Languages of the World: Uralic languages. Chicago, 1990.
• Laakso, Johanna: Karhunkieli. Pyyhkäisyjä suomalais-ugrilaisten kielten tutkimukseen (A Bear Tongue. Views on the Research of the Finno-Ugric Languages). Helsinki: SKS, 1999.
• Laakso, Johanna (ed.): Uralilaiset kansat (Uralic Peoples). Porvoo - Helsinki - Juva: WSOY, 1992.
• Marcantonio, Angela: What Is the Linguistic Evidence to Support the Uralic Theory or Theories? - In Linguistica Uralica 40, 1, pp 40-45, 2004.
• Marcantonio, Angela: The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics. 2003.
• Marcantonio, Angela & Pirjo Nummenaho & Michela Salvagni: The "Ugric-Turkic Battle": A Critical Review. In Linguistica Uralica 37, 2, pp 81-102, 2001. Online version.
• Sammallahti, Pekka: Historical phonology of the Uralic languages. - In: Denis Sinor (ed.), The Uralic languages. Description, history and foreign influences. Leiden - New York - København - Köln: Brill, 1998.
• Denis Sinor (ed.): Studies in Finno-Ugric Linguistics: In Honor of Alo Raun (Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series : Volume 131). Indiana Univ Research, 1977.
• Lars S. Vikør (ed.). “Fenno-Ugric,” in The Nordic Languages. Their Status and Interrelations. Novus Press, pp. 62-74, 1993.
• Языки народов СССР III. Финно-угорские и самодтйские языки (Languages of the Peoples in the USSR III. Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic Languages). Москва (Moscow): Наука (Nauka), 1966.
• A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei. Etimológiai szótár (The Hungarian Vocabulary of Finno-Ugric Origin. Etymological Dictionary). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1967-1978.

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